How does your garden grow?

I thought this would be a simple allusion to a nursery rhyme with which I grew up.  Alas, it seems full of controversy.  Moving on from such matters my response has nothing about cockleshells or nuns, but answers the question with "finally, not too badly". 

This has without a doubt been the worst cropping year, for many fruit and veg since we moved to Carwoola.  Our potatoes basically vanished in the deluges of early Summer.  Our grapes have done nothing: one variety has got some fruit but that seems to be falling off the vine before it is ripe.

The star performer at the moment is a pear tree.  All the fruit has come off it (mainly self propelled) so we are munching pears, are drying pears and have given some away.  Here is the crop:

Strawberries have done pretty well.  They have had the odd pause in production but this is what I pcked this morning.

In the vegetable department we are achieving diversity, with various forms of zucchini getting some volume.  Here is what I picked this morning.

• Cucumbers have done very well: many have been given away.
• Tomatoes are finally delivering, but in very modest amounts.
• Banana capsicums are doing well - we have a fridge drawer full, and the conventional capsicums are producing a few fruit.
• Green beans are OK, but something has eaten through the vines on most of the wigwams.
• Zucchinis (especially in the 'amusing' trombacini form) are going berserk - to the point that I gave some away to total strangers at Bungendore last week.  Fruit above. here are the vines.

Note the orange of some poti marron pumpkins lurking in the background!

We have got a fair crop of chilis but the weather has not been hot enough to get them going red yet.

We have got a very healthy lot of fruit on some Hanbanero so if the frost stays away for a few weeks there will be some good chili con carne lurking around.

For fruit, we have had a good crop of pears and some nice apples are ripening.  The big pleasure has been getting some peaches (4) for the first time since we moved here!

By early April the apple trees seemed to have got their act into order.

The damage evident in the image of the picked fruit was caused by Crimson Rosellas perching on, and pecking through, the bird netting. that was the catalyst for picking the most vulnerable fruit.

In terms of flowers the most striking array is a lot of 'standard' dahlias that greet visitors (and us) as one first gets to the house.

Some 'cactus' dahlias provide a splash of colour outside our bedroom.

We have had two successes this year.  Frances has brought many Acanthus from Adelaide but although they grow elsewhere in the region ours have failed.  Until now:

Some canna foliage was evident when we first moved in but it had not flowered at all until a few days ago.